Wednesday, February 23, 2011

The situation could be FUBAR, We Could Have Had President McCain

You know, I am no big fan of President Obama. I think he is duplicitous and weak, and just another president in a big line of corporate water-carriers that goes all the way back to Reagan. (I called Obama a water-carrier and not a "corporate slave" lest the sensitive ones around take offense and cry shame, though if we were white I would have no problem doing so.) But I do recognize that things could always be worse. For example, we could have had President McCain. How bad would that have been? Take this as a telling example:

Right now there’s a certain amount you pay into Social Security, and then after that it’s not taxed. There’s a number of things you can do to that are pretty simple and are pretty gradual keep the system from going bankrupt which basically it already is, because we’ve already spent the money that’s in the Social Security trust fund. It’s a Ponzi scheme that Bernie Madoff would be proud of.

As Zaid Jilani quickly and correctly pointed out in his post on Think Progress,

A Ponzi scheme involves fraudulently manipulating investors’ money without being able to pay them back; meanwhile, Social Security is a program that has successfully managed Americans’ money since its inception and has guaranteed them safe retirements.

Indeed, it must be that Republicans are only capable of viewing any program that treats Americans as if we were all on the same boat, rather than a few on yachts and most of the rest on rafts, as a "Ponzi scheme". (You know the analogy that a rising tide lifts all boats, the disingenuous argument Republicans love to make to justify trickle down economics, don't you?)

Take Ponzi scheme as a synonym for socialism, or "redistribution of wealth" in the Republican vocabulary. It is really a very good/bad sign of which side Republicans are on. When it comes to making sure that Ponzi schemes are not possible, they obstruct any attempt at regulation of the financial industry, but when the issue is to make sure that Americans can retire with some peace of mind they have no trouble calling Social Security a Ponzi scheme. They are truly evil.

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About Me

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!" (Upton Sinclair)

"Make it idiot-proof and someone will make a better idiot."

"The American People will take Socialism, but they won't take the label. I certainly proved it in the case of EPIC. Running on the Socialist ticket I got 60,000 votes, and running on the slogan to 'End Poverty in California' I got 879,000." (Upton Sinclair)